Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Drunk Driver 'Peels Out,' CRASHES, Kills Grandma and Tot Boy. NO ARRESTS?

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Drunk Driver 'Peels Out,' CRASHES, Kills Grandma and Tot Boy. NO ARRESTS? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:12
Speaker 2: A five year old little boy and his grandma visiting
0:19
Speaker 2: both dead. Why, according to reports, because of a wrong
0:24
Speaker 2: way drunk driver. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
0:29
Speaker 2: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
0:32
Speaker 2: and Sirius XM one eleven. First of all, take a
0:35
Speaker 2: listen to our friends at KTLA.
0:37
Speaker 3: A very heartbreaking story. We're talking about a little boy
0:40
Speaker 3: around the age of five. He was riding in a
0:42
Speaker 3: car seat. He was very injured, we're told, taken to
0:45
Speaker 3: the hospital where he died. Now, the second victim, a
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Speaker 3: woman in her sixties, She also died. She was pronounced
0:51
Speaker 3: dead here at the scene. Several people also injured and
0:54
Speaker 3: taken to the hospital this morning. This was a crash
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Speaker 3: between two vehicles. It was around nine o'clock last night
1:00
Speaker 3: and according to the report, one car, a white Honda Accord,
1:03
Speaker 3: was going northbound and at some point, for whatever reason,
1:05
Speaker 3: the white Honda crossed over to the southbound side and
1:08
Speaker 3: collided with another car, a gray Honda Civic. The laped
1:13
Speaker 3: telling us one car had two passengers. Both were taken
1:16
Speaker 3: to the hospital of injuries and the driver said to
1:18
Speaker 3: be in critical condition.
1:20
Speaker 2: Quick question, I want to go out of an all
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Speaker 2: star panel to make sense of what we are learning
1:26
Speaker 2: right now. To Patricia Rieira, California State Executive Director for
1:32
Speaker 2: Mad Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Patricia, thank you for being
1:37
Speaker 2: with us. Quick statistic from you. When a person is
1:41
Speaker 2: caught driving drunk, what is the estimated number of times
1:47
Speaker 2: they have driven drunk but not gotten caught?
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Speaker 4: As you mentioned, usually when there is an individual who's
1:53
Speaker 4: a drunk driver, that individual has driven over seventy times
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Speaker 4: prior they just haven't got can caught. And keep in
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Speaker 4: mind that here in California, thirty percent of all crashes
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Speaker 4: in California are alcohol related.
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Speaker 2: Whoa wait, wait, wait wait wait, yes, Patricia Rieira, Yes,
2:14
Speaker 2: you got me drinking out of the fire hydrant here.
2:16
Speaker 2: That's so much information, so quickly let me digest before
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Speaker 2: I get back to Little Elijah. Let me digest what
2:26
Speaker 2: you're telling me. Guys, you are hearing the top cop.
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Speaker 2: Let me put it out of mad from California, California
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Speaker 2: State Executive director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, one of
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Speaker 2: the most powerful forces against drunk driving in our nation.
2:45
Speaker 2: I had in my head seventy four times yes that
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Speaker 2: a person I don't know where I got that number.
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Speaker 2: I must have said it so many times in the past.
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Speaker 2: When a person is caught driving drunk, they have estimated
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Speaker 2: driven drunk around seventy four times without getting caught.
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Speaker 4: That is correct, Okay.
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Speaker 2: I just had to absorb that statistic right there. Yeah, okay,
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Speaker 2: then you said about thirty percent of what is due
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Speaker 2: to drunk driving.
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Speaker 4: Thirty percent of all crashes in California are alcohol related.
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Speaker 2: Oh that's terrible, Nancy.
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Speaker 4: California is the second highest state for fatalities behind Texas,
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Speaker 4: so we clearly have an issue with empairment in the
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Speaker 4: state of California.
3:43
Speaker 2: You know, it's hard for so many people to take in. Patricia,
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Speaker 2: I almost want you to say those stats again. But
3:51
Speaker 2: let me go to Karen Stark, renounced psychologists joining us
3:56
Speaker 2: out of Manhattan. You can find her at Karenstark dot com.
4:00
Speaker 2: Karen with a C. Karen, thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 2: I want to say, seventy four times they've driven drunk
4:10
Speaker 2: estimated average, and they're still doing it, knowing what kind
4:16
Speaker 2: of disaster they leave behind in their wake, risking their jobs,
4:23
Speaker 2: their families, their lives, other people's lives. Why do they
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Speaker 2: keep doing it. I mean, I'm just a trial lawyer.
4:31
Speaker 2: You're the shrink. Help me out here.
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Speaker 5: I'm happy to help you out. Nancy. What a tragedy,
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Speaker 5: really terrible story.
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Speaker 2: Five years old? Do you remember the twins?
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Speaker 6: Of course you do when they were five, because I
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Speaker 6: would bring them into the studio and you would see
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Speaker 6: them and play with them. Five years old, just so
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Speaker 6: precious and so wonderful, little miracles presence from heaven for
4:55
Speaker 6: us to raise. And this little boy Elijah and his grandma, well,
5:00
Speaker 6: who's visiting him.
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Speaker 2: Dead because of a drunken driver. I mean, why risk everything,
5:08
Speaker 2: Karen Stark?
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Speaker 5: Look at those pictures of in Nancy. He's just such
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Speaker 5: a vibrant, beautiful little boy. They risk everything because they
5:17
Speaker 5: don't feel like they're risking everything. They're in denial. When
5:21
Speaker 5: you're drinking, you're in an altered state. And people who
5:24
Speaker 5: drink and drive are telling themselves that they are not
5:29
Speaker 5: too drunk to drive, that they're perfectly fine. They know
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Speaker 5: what they're doing, and they don't believe that they're taking
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Speaker 5: a risk. That's why you see that they do it
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Speaker 5: so many times. Nothing stops them because they get away
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Speaker 5: with it each time, which reinforces that they can try again,
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Speaker 5: and denial is very powerful.
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Speaker 2: You know. I've heard people say, oh, I can handle it,
5:54
Speaker 2: I can do it.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: I don't understand why they think that somehow they're different
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Speaker 2: from every other driver in the world that crashes and
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Speaker 2: kills guys. Take a listen to our friends at ABC seven.
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Speaker 7: The family was on their way to dinner here along
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Speaker 7: this dark stretch of Woodley when their lives were suddenly
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Speaker 7: ripped apart. Two innocent lives lost that suspect allegedly driving
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Speaker 7: under the influence. A heartbroken mother overcome with grief as
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Speaker 7: she describes the moment she saw her five year old
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Speaker 7: son and her mother lying in the street after a
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Speaker 7: speeding suspect slammed into the car they were riding in.
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Speaker 2: I can't see my life without him. I can't save
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Speaker 2: my life without him. What more do we know about
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Speaker 2: that night? Listen?
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Speaker 8: The innocent five year old was in the car with
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Speaker 8: his grandmother, who was visiting from El Salvador, and his
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Speaker 8: stepsister and her boyfriend Thursday night when police at the
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Speaker 8: suspect suddenly veered into oncoming traffic, slamming head onto their car.
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Speaker 8: It happened on Woodley Avenue near Woodley Park in Van Eyes.
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Speaker 2: Hi load my life, my life gong with him. I'm
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Speaker 2: still asking to have you, heard the mom speaking earlier. Now,
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Speaker 2: the father, heartbroken and devastated. Listen to our friendly and suture.
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Speaker 8: The suspect who was critically injured in the crash, allegedly
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Speaker 8: driving under the influence. A GoFundMe has been set up
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Speaker 8: to help the grieving family. Always happy and full of energy,
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Speaker 8: the recent preschool graduate was the light of his family,
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Speaker 8: their joy and happiness. His parents struggling to comprehend the unimaginable.
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Speaker 8: I'm desperate for answers and justice.
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Speaker 1: I don't feel my heart, I feel empty.
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Speaker 2: I don't see my days without my song. It just
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Speaker 2: hurts me so much to hear that mother and father
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Speaker 2: talking about I don't see my life without him. You know,
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Speaker 2: sometimes David and i'm a been look at each other
8:00
Speaker 2: and go, how did we think we were happy before
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Speaker 2: we had the twins? Because they really are our focus,
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Speaker 2: our reason for living. Just such a blessing to us
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Speaker 2: to have them. And that's how this family felt about
8:19
Speaker 2: five year old Elijah joining me right now. Chief investigative
8:23
Speaker 2: reporter from dailymail dot Com, Jen Smith jen on the
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Speaker 2: story from the very beginning. Of course, Jen, it's not
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Speaker 2: a story, it's real, real people devastated. What do we know, Jen,
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Speaker 2: about what happened?
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Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. This is not a
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Speaker 9: story that anyone wants to be telling. It as a
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Speaker 9: real life tragedy and so easily preventable. If we're going
8:47
Speaker 9: with what we think had happened, which is that this
8:49
Speaker 9: other driver was under the influence. So we know that
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Speaker 9: the family was on their way to dinner, and there
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Speaker 9: were two cars. Elijah was in the car in front
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Speaker 9: in the back seat with his grandmother Aura. Driving that
9:02
Speaker 9: car was his stepsister and her boyfriend. Now his parents,
9:08
Speaker 9: or at least his mother, were in the car behind him,
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Speaker 9: so they actually watched all of this unfold. If you
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Speaker 9: can believe that this other driver, somehow is driving southbound
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Speaker 9: out of nowhere, bears into the lane where Elijah and
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Speaker 9: his family are driving, smashes into their vehicle. Clearly, Elijah
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Speaker 9: and his grandmother in the back seat of the car
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Speaker 9: were the most severely injured. They were thrown from the car,
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Speaker 9: as was the driver. So the boy's mother, who is
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Speaker 9: also the daughter of the grandmother, is left watching in horror.
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Speaker 9: As her daughter, her son, and her mother are lying
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Speaker 9: in the street. Now. The driver responsible for this, we
9:49
Speaker 9: don't know much about them. All we know is that
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Speaker 9: it's a man in his thirties. Was also severely injured
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Speaker 9: taken to the hospital. A very busy chaos sixteen Nancy.
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Speaker 9: This happened at around ninety am on June twenty ninth.
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Speaker 9: It was a Thursday night in this area. You know
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Speaker 9: it Vanalyzes, part of central Los Angeles. It is pretty busy,
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Speaker 9: but the road that this happened on was uncharacteristically quiet
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Speaker 9: and dark for this area. And it's also near a park.
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Speaker 9: It's near a kind of reservation area. So whether or
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Speaker 9: not this is an area where accidents frequently happen, we
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Speaker 9: don't know. But we do know that something clearly potentially
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Speaker 9: alcohol or even drugs, has played a huge role in
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Speaker 9: this tragedy.
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Speaker 1: Prime Stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: Not only allegedly driving drunk, but also veering into the
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Speaker 2: wrong lane. The shot of the mother and father looking
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Speaker 2: as their child is thrown out of the car, and
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Speaker 2: it's doubly upsetting because this family was doing everything right.
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Speaker 2: The little boy, Elijah was in the back seat like
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Speaker 2: you should have been stripped into a car seat like
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Speaker 2: he should have been beside his grandmother, no doubt, talking
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Speaker 2: to him, petting him, loving on him, laughing with him.
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Speaker 2: When out of the blue, they're dead, just like that,
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Speaker 2: trying to go out for a family dinner, celebrating grandma visiting,
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Speaker 2: and it's all torn to shreds. The family devastation set aside.
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Speaker 2: As a trial lawyer, we immediately begin to decipher what
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Speaker 2: exactly happened. Take a listen to any rose or Ramos KTLA.
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Speaker 10: The two car crash happened around nine pm. According to police,
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Speaker 10: a white twenty fourteen Honda was traveling north when, for
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Speaker 10: unknown reasons, it went into the opposite lane, the southbound lane,
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Speaker 10: where it collided head on with a gray twenty twenty
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Speaker 10: Honda Civic. Inside that gray Civic were four people and
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Speaker 10: in the back seat of seventy four year old grandmother
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Speaker 10: and her five year old grandson in a car seat
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Speaker 10: beside her. The others in the front seats was the
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Speaker 10: five year old stepsister and boyfriend, who walked away with
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Speaker 10: minor injuries.
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Speaker 2: From what we're understanding, Jen Smith. Jen is the chief
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Speaker 2: investigative reporter with dailymail dot Com. There were no other
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Speaker 2: road hazards, Like, it wasn't raining to the point you
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Speaker 2: couldn't see it wasn't raining at all. There were no
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Speaker 2: other hazards on the highway, nothing at all until the
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Speaker 2: drunk the allegedly drunk driver out of nowhere veer's over
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Speaker 2: into the victim's lane. Is that right, that is right?
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Speaker 9: Yeah, No other has that could have contributed to this
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Speaker 9: other than you know, driver error, Nancy. I mean, like
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Speaker 9: you say, we wasn't as if it was a wildly dangerous, wet, windy,
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Speaker 9: stormy night or anything like that. You know, clearly the
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Speaker 9: family felt like they were safe to be going out
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Speaker 9: for dinner in two cars. You know, there was a
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Speaker 9: few of them. There, nothing to suggest this sort of danger.
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Speaker 9: And you know, day we believe our a local family.
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Speaker 9: They knew this area pretty well. Obviously Grandma was visiting.
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Speaker 9: But as for the parents, they knew exadly what they
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Speaker 9: were doing, so they had no reason to believe that
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Speaker 9: they were putting themselves and their son, their children in
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Speaker 9: harm's way.
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Speaker 2: Jason Jensen is joining us out of Salt Lake City,
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Speaker 2: private investigator, owner of Jensen Private Investigations and co founder
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Speaker 2: of Cold Case Coalition. You can find Jason at Jensen
13:51
Speaker 2: Private Investigations dot com. Jason, thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 2: I immediately go to the facts thinking that somehow, some
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Speaker 2: fact is going to prove an important fact to this case.
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Speaker 2: How do you, as a private investigator go about putting
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Speaker 2: this scene back together again and finding out what happened?
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Speaker 11: Thanks Fancy. What's interesting about this case is as traffic
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Speaker 11: as it is, there is a crash that occurred where
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Speaker 11: we have eyewitnesses that report that the drunk the large
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Speaker 11: drunk driver veered across a double lane freeway. Well it's
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Speaker 11: a highway, you know. Woodley Avenue is divided with two
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Speaker 11: lanes nor two lanes south, and it's only painted in
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Speaker 11: the center, so there's no center island. So what caused
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Speaker 11: that driver to suddenly veer? If there's no obstructions, there's
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Speaker 11: no you know, disabled vehicles or anything like that. Typically
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Speaker 11: when you're dealing with a drunk driver, there's some a
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Speaker 11: distruction within the vehicle. So for instance, if they're on
15:05
Speaker 11: their phone, they dropped their phone and they're not paying
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Speaker 11: attention now because they're under the influence. So when they
15:15
Speaker 11: turn to the left or turn to the right, their
15:18
Speaker 11: hand stares the will with their body, So we look
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Speaker 11: for something like that, and there was somebody in the
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Speaker 11: car that eventually can be interviewed.
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Speaker 2: I'm thinking through everything that Jason Jensen just told us,
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Speaker 2: high profile Utah private investigator joining me right now. I
15:37
Speaker 2: told you we had an all star panel, and that
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Speaker 2: is a fact with us now. Tiffany E. Fetter, she
15:45
Speaker 2: is a very well known lawyer and a family friend. Tiffany,
15:54
Speaker 2: thank you for being with us. As you heard earlier
15:57
Speaker 2: from Patricia, I don't have words to express how badly
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Speaker 2: we feel for this family and what they are going through.
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Speaker 2: You know, additional facts, What more can you tell us, Tiffany.
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Speaker 12: Well beyond I'm just as shocked by what I've heard
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Speaker 12: regarding these statistics. This is a very loving family. Yes,
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Speaker 12: Joe Elijah was five years old. He just graduated pre K,
16:26
Speaker 12: he was starting a new school five years old. He
16:30
Speaker 12: loved Super Mario brothers and soccer, and he was literally
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Speaker 12: the joy of his parents. The mother was in the
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Speaker 12: car behind them. The daughter called her she was stopped
16:43
Speaker 12: at a red light that they had just been in
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Speaker 12: an accident. She was about eight cars behind. She pulled
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Speaker 12: up on the scene to see her son on the
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Speaker 12: floor and her mother had already passed away. And I
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Speaker 12: can't even imagine what Anna has been going through. She's
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Speaker 12: the most gentle, loving person to endure a double tragedy
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Speaker 12: like this that could have been avoided. And this stretch
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Speaker 12: of Woodley's very dark. This is not the first accident
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Speaker 12: it's been There's been many, and the driver actually peeled
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Speaker 12: out of the parking lot at a very high speed
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Speaker 12: and hit them. It's just devastating. The family needs to
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Speaker 12: pick up these pieces for the rest of their lives.
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Speaker 2: Tiffany, he says something that I didn't Well, you said
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Speaker 2: a lot that we didn't know because you're on the inside.
17:42
Speaker 2: We're on the outside looking in. With me is a
17:46
Speaker 2: very well known lawyer, Tiffany Fetter, who is also a
17:51
Speaker 2: family friend of the victims in this case. Tiffany, you
17:55
Speaker 2: said that they allegedunk driver peel out and hit them.
18:02
Speaker 2: What do you mean by that? I thought the driver
18:05
Speaker 2: was just going along very slowly and then you know,
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Speaker 2: veered off. Although I'm hearing from Jason Jensen it was
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Speaker 2: a four lane, so I had to veer across basically
18:14
Speaker 2: three lanes to crash into the victims. But what do
18:17
Speaker 2: you mean by peel off out of wear for what?
18:20
Speaker 2: So there's a.
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Speaker 12: Park there that's often frequented by people that are drinking
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Speaker 12: and engaging in whatever they're doing. He peeled out of
18:28
Speaker 12: the parking lot, it's full speed and collided into oncoming traffic.
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Speaker 12: That's correct, went three lanes plus the middle. However big
18:37
Speaker 12: that is. But he peeled out of the parking lot
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Speaker 12: at full speed when he hit them. There's marks on
18:43
Speaker 12: the street of where that happened.
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Speaker 2: Okay, wait a minute. You said it was a park
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Speaker 2: that is known for people drinking, and he said, and whatever,
18:53
Speaker 2: what do you mean by drinking and whatever? Okay, here's
18:56
Speaker 2: an example. I just took the twins. David and I
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Speaker 2: took the twins on a trip and we were trying
19:02
Speaker 2: to walk back to our hotel and we found a
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Speaker 2: pathway by a river to get back to the hotel.
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Speaker 2: And I asked someone, is that safe for me to
19:17
Speaker 2: walk the twins home down this path at night? And
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Speaker 2: they went absolutely, yes, it's very safe. It's known for
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Speaker 2: date night that people go dates, go strolling up and
19:29
Speaker 2: down the river at night. And sure enough, that's what
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Speaker 2: it was. No drinking, no drugs, not even a cigarette. Literally,
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Speaker 2: couples were hand in hand, just walking up and down,
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Speaker 2: stopping looking out at the water at nine point thirty
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Speaker 2: at night. So that's what that area is known for.
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Speaker 2: You said, this is a part where people drink and
19:52
Speaker 2: quote whatever, what do you mean by that?
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Speaker 12: Well, I'm just going there was an eyewitness who said
19:56
Speaker 12: that he had seen the driver in this park for
19:59
Speaker 12: a few hours before, drinking and smoking marijuana. And it's
20:04
Speaker 12: it's nine point thirty at night the park. Why is
20:07
Speaker 12: the park open? Why do people have access? Why isn't
20:10
Speaker 12: it closed? If the cars are coming in, there's a
20:13
Speaker 12: parking lot, why is that accessible so late at night.
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Speaker 2: Tiffany Fetter is with us giving us information from inside
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Speaker 2: the family, from inside the investigation. You know, Karen Stark,
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Speaker 2: I just I don't get it. It's like the people
20:32
Speaker 2: that go to bars and they drink and they drink,
20:35
Speaker 2: and they drink and they drink and then go get
20:38
Speaker 2: in the car and start driving. Here's someone that, according
20:41
Speaker 2: to eyewitness reports, drank and drank and drank and did
20:47
Speaker 2: pot and then gets to the car and quote, peels out.
20:52
Speaker 2: I don't get it.
20:52
Speaker 5: Think of the state that they're in, Nancy, I mean
20:55
Speaker 5: This isn't somebody who can make wise moral decision.
20:58
Speaker 2: But I mean every time you take a drink, I
21:01
Speaker 2: mean you got to get home some way, and there's
21:02
Speaker 2: your car. They know going into it, Karen, start that
21:06
Speaker 2: they're going to drive. They know that, they know they're
21:09
Speaker 2: gonna drink and drive. That's the plan. Do you ever
21:13
Speaker 2: meet those people that you say, hey, what'd you do
21:15
Speaker 2: this weekend?
21:16
Speaker 11: Oh?
21:16
Speaker 2: Ah, got drunk? Like that's what? Like you went to
21:20
Speaker 2: a play or a movie or a party, or you
21:22
Speaker 2: had to cook out in the backyard. I got drunk?
21:25
Speaker 2: Like what is that.
21:26
Speaker 5: An acceptable thing to do in our society? Right to
21:30
Speaker 5: say I got drunk? But here's what's interesting is that
21:34
Speaker 5: you know that you're supposed to have either a designated
21:37
Speaker 5: driver or a handover your keys. And I do believe
21:42
Speaker 5: that even where you're drinking, if they see somebody in
21:45
Speaker 5: that state that they're not supposed to.
21:48
Speaker 2: Let you go, I'm not sure they do. They let
21:51
Speaker 2: you go, They let you go. And here here's another
21:54
Speaker 2: irony to doctor Miniesha Pandy, chief forensic pathologist at Forensic
22:01
Speaker 2: Pathologist LLC and Ohio. You can find doctor Pandy at
22:06
Speaker 2: the Forensicpathologist dot com not necessarily true in this case,
22:11
Speaker 2: doctor Pandy. But why is it that in so many cases,
22:16
Speaker 2: the innocent victims die and the drunk driver is like
22:22
Speaker 2: a sandwich bag full of jello. They live, they walk away,
22:30
Speaker 2: everything's fine, they go about their business, and then there's
22:33
Speaker 2: this family that's just devastated forever. There's no coming back
22:38
Speaker 2: from that, doctor Pandy. When your child is killed, there's
22:41
Speaker 2: no coming back from that.
22:43
Speaker 13: I agree, that's like the most devastating thing anyone has
22:47
Speaker 13: to you know, undergo if I mean, it's really bad. However,
22:52
Speaker 13: like I've seen most of the time the cases I've
22:55
Speaker 13: done in which the person who has hit the car
22:58
Speaker 13: is usually drunk and they have over survived, so there's
23:02
Speaker 13: over the trial or something going on, and they have
23:05
Speaker 13: to undergo, you know, the due process. One of the reasons,
23:11
Speaker 13: it said, is that the people who are drunk usually
23:13
Speaker 13: they're very loose. They're not like stick for anything, and
23:17
Speaker 13: they're just going with the flow off the vehicle and hitting.
23:21
Speaker 13: So when they're hitting the other car, those guys have
23:24
Speaker 13: no chance because they're getting hick really fast. This particular
23:28
Speaker 13: person who's driving drunk and hitting is actually it doesn't
23:35
Speaker 13: even know what they're doing so they're not aware of
23:37
Speaker 13: their surroundings. So that's the reason they're making this poor
23:39
Speaker 13: choice of hitting another vehicle, and that is one of
23:43
Speaker 13: the reasons they do tend to survive.
23:45
Speaker 2: Doctor Pani. I'm also wondering, it seems like this family
23:48
Speaker 2: did everything right. They had. It's just so alien to
23:52
Speaker 2: me because when we get in the car and we
23:54
Speaker 2: hear that ding ding ding, The first thing is who
23:57
Speaker 2: doesn't have on their seat belts? By the way, it's
23:59
Speaker 2: always loose. Who doesn't have on a seat belt?
24:02
Speaker 11: This?
24:03
Speaker 2: That the other thing. I just everything's got to be safe.
24:07
Speaker 2: We check the side mirrors, the rear view mirror, everything
24:11
Speaker 2: before we even pull out onto the road. With the twins.
24:14
Speaker 2: This is just so alien to me. But my point is,
24:18
Speaker 2: doctor Pandy, they had the child, little Elijah, Yes, Elijah,
24:25
Speaker 2: in the back seat like they're supposed to he was
24:28
Speaker 2: in a car seat like he's supposed to be. Why
24:31
Speaker 2: is he dead? They were doing everything right, doctor Pandy.
24:36
Speaker 13: So the problem here is the speed at which they
24:39
Speaker 13: were hit. They were hit at a very high rate
24:41
Speaker 13: of speed. So that's when someone is hit to that
24:44
Speaker 13: you can you know immediately have like fatal injuries in
24:50
Speaker 13: terms of neck injuries, chest injuries, and those are pretty
24:55
Speaker 13: devastating every single.
24:56
Speaker 2: Time, Patricia, think about it. This guy de vere across
25:01
Speaker 2: three lanes of traffic, and you heard Attorney Tiffany Fetter
25:05
Speaker 2: say he peeled out, peeled out. I mean the common
25:11
Speaker 2: interpretation of peeled out means floored it put the pedal
25:14
Speaker 2: to the metal, and scratched off.
25:17
Speaker 4: So there's a couple of things, Nancy, I would say
25:20
Speaker 4: to that. You know, we we need to pass and
25:23
Speaker 4: enforce tougher laws, specifically the all offender ignition interlock law.
25:28
Speaker 4: I think that's the best we have right now.
25:30
Speaker 2: Hold on, Hold on what you sound like you're a
25:32
Speaker 2: law a lawyer that knows all those Latin phrases. We
25:36
Speaker 2: had to learn a law. Still, I don't know what
25:39
Speaker 2: you just said. It was so fast.
25:41
Speaker 4: What it's an all offender ignition interlock.
25:44
Speaker 2: Hold on, all offender? I have to write everything down.
25:48
Speaker 2: Ignition interlock? Yeah, okay, what is that?
25:53
Speaker 4: That is a small device about the size of a
25:58
Speaker 4: cell phone, and those are installed in vehicles and if
26:02
Speaker 4: a person is impaired the vehicle, the technology can pick
26:07
Speaker 4: up if a person is impaired or not and the
26:09
Speaker 4: vehicle will not start. Matt has been instrumental in helping
26:14
Speaker 4: to pass the ol of ender ignition in our law
26:17
Speaker 4: laws in thirty four states in the District of Columbia,
26:20
Speaker 4: and that is the best that we have right now.
26:23
Speaker 4: So we really need to get to a point where
26:26
Speaker 4: we are really passing and enforcing tougher laws. And then
26:31
Speaker 4: the other thing I'd say is technology. We believe that
26:35
Speaker 4: technology holdes the key to eliminating drunk driving. And on
26:39
Speaker 4: November fifteenth, twenty twenty one, President Biden signed into law
26:44
Speaker 4: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included this is
26:49
Speaker 4: the good news, a provision that will lead to driving
26:53
Speaker 4: prevention technology becoming standard in all new cars. That is
26:59
Speaker 4: how we get to reducing these fatalities, in these injuries
27:04
Speaker 4: and really getting to zero is going to take technology, advocacy,
27:11
Speaker 4: victim assistance, and it's going to take the general public
27:14
Speaker 4: because it takes everybody's involvement. Everybody needs to be involved.
27:19
Speaker 4: Get involved with MAD by volunteering or donating to help
27:23
Speaker 4: raise awareness and shape behaviors around drunk and DIREUGT driving.
27:27
Speaker 4: And while MAD has been instrumental in helping to reduce
27:31
Speaker 4: the drunk driving deaths by fifty percent. That number still
27:35
Speaker 4: is increasing, So we need the public to come on
27:38
Speaker 4: board with us, get involved by volunteering or donating and
27:44
Speaker 4: helping to raise awareness, and we can really get to
27:48
Speaker 4: zero if we all work together with this.
27:51
Speaker 2: I want to follow up on something you just said, Patricia.
27:54
Speaker 2: They all offender ignition interlock. What you said has been
27:58
Speaker 2: passed in multiple states and DC that it can detect
28:03
Speaker 2: when someone is DUI driving under the influence. And this
28:08
Speaker 2: is how the ignition interlock works. It's my understanding that
28:13
Speaker 2: the driver must blow into the device and that is
28:18
Speaker 2: how it determines whether the driver has been drinking. Is
28:22
Speaker 2: that right?
28:22
Speaker 4: That is correct? That is correct. That individual has to
28:26
Speaker 4: blow not just once, but multiple times when they're in
28:30
Speaker 4: that vehicle to make sure that they stay sober while
28:34
Speaker 4: they have this device installed on their vehicle. That is
28:38
Speaker 4: the best technology that we have right now. We are
28:42
Speaker 4: working on ways to get this as a law here
28:46
Speaker 4: in California because clearly the statistics that I mentioned earlier,
28:50
Speaker 4: at thirty percent of all crashes in California, we have
28:55
Speaker 4: to do something.
28:56
Speaker 2: Would that be on everybody's car or just someone that
28:59
Speaker 2: had been arrested or had an alcohol problem before the.
29:04
Speaker 4: Ignition near Locke. Would only be on individuals who we
29:06
Speaker 4: have been arrested for tui. Okay, the technology that I
29:10
Speaker 4: talked about that President Biden's signed it into law that
29:13
Speaker 4: would be on all vehicles.
29:31
Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace, you know.
29:36
Speaker 2: To Jen Smith, the chief investigative reporter for dailymail dot com,
29:41
Speaker 2: of course there are ways that people offenders would get
29:45
Speaker 2: around it, just like they get around urine test by
29:48
Speaker 2: having someone else t t in a cup. I mean,
29:51
Speaker 2: there's a million ways to get around it, but generally speaking,
29:56
Speaker 2: so many criminals are well, they're just stupid and they
30:01
Speaker 2: won't be able to think of a way around it
30:03
Speaker 2: when they're three sheets to the wind. So it's a
30:07
Speaker 2: wonderful proposition, that a wonderful idea that so far multiple
30:12
Speaker 2: jurisdictions are enforcing, they are using it. I got a
30:17
Speaker 2: question for you, Jen Smith. I heard Tiffany talking about
30:22
Speaker 2: this park where the defendant was seen drinking and using
30:28
Speaker 2: pot before the crash. And I never say accident, because
30:32
Speaker 2: it's no accident.
30:33
Speaker 11: Jen.
30:34
Speaker 2: When someone drinks and drinks and drinks one drink after
30:38
Speaker 2: the next, each one a willing event. Then getting the keys,
30:41
Speaker 2: walking to the car, getting into the car, turning in
30:45
Speaker 2: the ignition, putting in reverse, and then drive. All of
30:48
Speaker 2: those are willful acts, no accident. What do we know
30:53
Speaker 2: regarding or do we know what the blood alcohol was
30:56
Speaker 2: on the alleged drunk driver to.
31:00
Speaker 9: Come out as part of the investigation right now? See,
31:02
Speaker 9: so far, there is very little that we actually know
31:05
Speaker 9: about this driver and what they were up to before
31:09
Speaker 9: they got behind the wheel of their Honda Accord and
31:13
Speaker 9: made this fatal decision to set off again. It's all
31:17
Speaker 9: going to play out and that's going to be the
31:19
Speaker 9: basis of the criminal investigation.
31:22
Speaker 2: So we don't know yet. That's what I'm taking We
31:24
Speaker 2: do not know yet. Jen. I'm looking at your article
31:29
Speaker 2: in Daily Mail. It's a photo from KABC. It's an
31:33
Speaker 2: aerial photo. I'm not quite sure how they got it.
31:36
Speaker 2: It's just above the tree line and it shows the
31:40
Speaker 2: white vehicle that the perp was driving and correct me
31:43
Speaker 2: if I'm wrong, Jens Smith and Tiffany Fetter, and then
31:46
Speaker 2: the black vehicle. It's the cars are completely mangled and
31:51
Speaker 2: a lot of it looks like fire. People are hovered
31:55
Speaker 2: over a body covered with a sheet line the road
32:01
Speaker 2: and I think that is the grandma and it's such
32:05
Speaker 2: an upsetting scene when you compare that too little Yeshua
32:10
Speaker 2: Elijah standing there in another photo being hugged on by
32:16
Speaker 2: his grandma, Tiffany Fetter. Any idea what the perp blood
32:22
Speaker 2: alcohol content was? I believe in California legal limit is
32:27
Speaker 2: point zero eight.
32:28
Speaker 12: That's correct. I don't know what it is. I just
32:31
Speaker 12: wanted to include though, I'm so baffled by these statistics
32:36
Speaker 12: and the thirty percent alcohol related accidents in California. Why
32:41
Speaker 12: aren't we having these interlock devices installed for every vehicle
32:45
Speaker 12: in California, even though the cost is very high. When
32:50
Speaker 12: do we value human life more.
32:52
Speaker 2: Than the unfettered right to travel by a known driver. Guys,
32:58
Speaker 2: we're looking into more of what happened that night. Why
33:02
Speaker 2: was grandma out at nine o'clock with the little boy?
33:05
Speaker 2: To start with? Take a listen to any Rose Rimos.
33:10
Speaker 10: We are now hearing from the family for the first
33:13
Speaker 10: time sharing about those two victims. They're two loved ones
33:16
Speaker 10: who lost their life in that crash. They're also telling
33:19
Speaker 10: us more details about what happened. We understand that the
33:22
Speaker 10: family was on their way to dinner on that tragic night,
33:25
Speaker 10: that is when a car driving in the wrong direction
33:29
Speaker 10: came out of nowhere and hit them head on.
33:31
Speaker 2: So the family was out having a celebration dinner because
33:36
Speaker 2: Grandma was in from out of the country to visit Grandma,
33:42
Speaker 2: and yes, your Elijah in the back seat, no question,
33:48
Speaker 2: talking and laughing. She's probably hearing about his graduation from
33:52
Speaker 2: pre K, catching up on everything that she had missed,
33:57
Speaker 2: and then this going out to and more. Take a
34:03
Speaker 2: listen to KTLA.
34:05
Speaker 10: The attorney representing this family says she believes that the
34:09
Speaker 10: driver who hit them was under the influence. At this time,
34:14
Speaker 10: we checked in with the police, who say this is
34:16
Speaker 10: all under investigation. The only thing they're telling us is
34:19
Speaker 10: that the driver was a man in his thirties, but
34:22
Speaker 10: they say no arrests have been made in connection with
34:25
Speaker 10: this case at this time.
34:27
Speaker 2: It's by far not the first time a drunk driver
34:31
Speaker 2: has veered into oncoming traffic and killed. I don't know
34:37
Speaker 2: if the name Diane Schuller rings the bell, but I
34:40
Speaker 2: will never forget it. Take a listen to our friends
34:42
Speaker 2: at today.
34:43
Speaker 14: Brian Schuler was only five when his mother, sister, and
34:47
Speaker 14: cousins were all killed in a violent crash Brian was
34:52
Speaker 14: the lone survivor.
34:53
Speaker 15: He came home from rehab and I started spending my
34:56
Speaker 15: days with him. The stories and never changed, never ever changed. Mommy,
35:00
Speaker 15: I'd heard, she couldn't say.
35:02
Speaker 14: Mommy was Diane Schuler. She drove the family minivan the
35:06
Speaker 14: wrong way on New York's Taconic Parkway, slamming into an suv,
35:10
Speaker 14: killing all three inside the suv headed to their own
35:14
Speaker 14: family dinner.
35:15
Speaker 2: Amazingly similar to the case in chief that we are
35:20
Speaker 2: analyzing today and more from today, Diane and.
35:25
Speaker 14: Her daughter were killed along with all her brother's kids,
35:29
Speaker 14: three young sisters.
35:31
Speaker 9: The kid's not moving. Yeah, there's a whole bunch of kids.
35:34
Speaker 12: Honestly.
35:34
Speaker 14: The car smashed just moments before the accident.
35:37
Speaker 2: One of the kids called home worried.
35:41
Speaker 15: I'm saying Aunt Diane can't say, and Diane can't something's
35:45
Speaker 15: wrong with Aunt Diane.
35:47
Speaker 14: To psychology, reports showed Diane Schuler was high on drugs
35:51
Speaker 14: and drunk behind the wheel, more than double the legal limit.
35:55
Speaker 2: Mommy's head hurt, yeah, because she was drunk and high.
35:59
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, she had the equivalent of
36:01
Speaker 2: ten drinks, elevating her blood alcohol to two and a
36:05
Speaker 2: half times the legal limit. Investigators recovered a broken one
36:09
Speaker 2: point seventy five Leader bottle of vodka. Okay to Tiffany
36:16
Speaker 2: Fetter joining us, not only a family friend of Yeshua
36:20
Speaker 2: Elijah's family, but very well known lawyer. The reality here is,
36:29
Speaker 2: with the one point seventy five Leader bottle of vodka
36:32
Speaker 2: found on that scene, we have enough extrinsic evidence to
36:37
Speaker 2: prove Schuler was drunk driving. In this case, we have
36:42
Speaker 2: an eyewitness stating they observed the driver drinking and drinking
36:47
Speaker 2: and drinking over a period of time at this part
36:50
Speaker 2: and smoking pot. So even if a blood alcohol was
36:55
Speaker 2: not taken, which I believe that it was, but we
36:58
Speaker 2: don't know that yet, can still be proved that he
37:02
Speaker 2: was a drunk driver from extensic evidence without the blood alcohol.
37:06
Speaker 2: Would you agree or disagree?
37:08
Speaker 12: I agree absolutely, And I think that there's no he's
37:13
Speaker 12: in He's in the hospital. There's no way there's not
37:15
Speaker 12: a blood alcohol reading already.
37:17
Speaker 2: No way there's not a BAC too, Doctor Manisha Pandy,
37:22
Speaker 2: Doctor Panny, again, thank you for being with us chief
37:24
Speaker 2: forensic pathologist at Forensic Pathologists in Ohio. Doctor Pandy, you
37:30
Speaker 2: have performed literally hundreds and hundreds of autopsies. How many
37:36
Speaker 2: autopsies would you say you performed as a result of
37:40
Speaker 2: drunk driving?
37:41
Speaker 13: Oh goodness, I've performed like at least a thousands.
37:46
Speaker 2: I just wonder. I wonder, Tiffany, you were hearing Patricia
37:52
Speaker 2: Rieira talking about possible solutions to drunk driving deaths. They're homicides.
38:02
Speaker 2: They're not just deaths, they're homicide. You might as well
38:05
Speaker 2: take a gun and point it at this five year
38:07
Speaker 2: old little boy and pull the trigger. When you hear
38:11
Speaker 2: about all the possible solutions, do you ever wonder, as
38:15
Speaker 2: you think about Yeshua Elijah, why they are not being implemented.
38:21
Speaker 12: It's devastating in California with thirty percent of these accidents
38:26
Speaker 12: happening because of drunk drivers. Why aren't we having these
38:30
Speaker 12: devices installed in all vehicles? Why is this continuing to happen.
38:35
Speaker 12: It's horrific. And they did they did everything right. He
38:40
Speaker 12: was in his car seat, he had a seatbelt. The
38:42
Speaker 12: impact was so strong that his heart was irreparably damaged.
38:47
Speaker 2: Guys, they should be getting him ready for first grade.
38:53
Speaker 2: Little Yeshua Elijah just graduated pre qu but instead this
38:59
Speaker 2: is what's happening. Take a listen to our cut nine
39:01
Speaker 2: from KTLA.
39:03
Speaker 10: The family now releasing photo of the two of them
39:05
Speaker 10: on a go fundme page where you see the seventy
39:08
Speaker 10: four year old grandmother named Ara Orda de la Cruz Cow.
39:11
Speaker 10: They were on the tobar with our arm around five
39:14
Speaker 10: year old yes Shua Kodorva Tobar of Los Angeles, a
39:17
Speaker 10: family friend creating this fundraiser page to help with not one,
39:21
Speaker 10: but the two funerals they are now facing, planning.
39:24
Speaker 2: Two funerals to be planned.
39:26
Speaker 12: You know, this whole time we've been talking, I have
39:29
Speaker 12: twins and they're friends with Yesua, and last time you
39:32
Speaker 12: was here, they were playing on the trampoline and I've
39:35
Speaker 12: been watching this trampoline the whole time. It's not real.
39:39
Speaker 2: It's so sad.
39:41
Speaker 12: I keep going over there and comforting them and just
39:45
Speaker 12: trying to help them raise money because it's two funerals
39:47
Speaker 12: and the family has limited funds, and I just keep
39:51
Speaker 12: posting and posting and posting, and you know, any which
39:55
Speaker 12: way to spread the word.
39:56
Speaker 2: If you have information about this crash, this homicide, plase
40:01
Speaker 2: call eight one eight three seven four ninety five hundred
40:05
Speaker 2: repeat eight one eight three seven four nine five hundred.
40:10
Speaker 4: I'd also like to extend MADS for free victim services.
40:15
Speaker 4: We have free victim services. We love to help this family.
40:20
Speaker 4: One of the services that we provide is exactly what
40:23
Speaker 4: you guys are talking about. We actually can help them
40:27
Speaker 4: with referrals for services, emotional support. There's a lot that
40:34
Speaker 4: we can offer at no cost to them. We have
40:37
Speaker 4: a Victim Service helpline and that number is one eight
40:42
Speaker 4: seven seven MAD Help.
40:45
Speaker 2: Goodbye, sir,